Precision radial velocities in the near infrared (NIR) may help detect terrestrial mass planets around mid and late M dwarfs that are typically too faint in the optical for effective monitoring. The NIR poses a new set of calibration and technology challenges. I shall discuss the current state of the art in NIR spectroscopy, and RV precision and present ongoing work at Penn State with the Pathfinder NIR tesbed. With the Pathfinder we have demonstrated 10-15 m/s radial velocity precision in the NIR Y band at the 9m Hobby Eberly telescope. I shall discuss these results and results from the first on-sky observations with an H band laser frequency comb developed at NIST and CU. New instrumental upgrades and modification to Pathfinder that have made high NIR velocity precision possible with the use of new calibration sources like Uranium lamps and laser combs. The ability to achieve this level of precision with a test bed bodes well for a stabilized spectrograph built on these principles, and I will discuss progress toward this as well as ways to overcome challenges like modal noise and telluric absorption correction.